WHEATLAND, Mo. — The Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night at Lucas Oil Speedway saw three of the four championship chases decided by less than 25 points.
In the night action, the closest battle came in the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars, with Bryan White’s second-place feature finish proving enough to edge out his dad, Rob White, for the championship.
Other Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series track champions crowned included Dillon McCowan (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds), Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Larry Ferris (Hermitage Lumber Late Models).
McCowan also celebrated with a feature win, making his night doubly sweet. Rodney Schweizer captured the stock car feature victory, Ryan Gillmore earned a B-Mod feature thriller and Tucker Cox grabbed the late model main event.
Bryan, who began the night 12 points ahead of Rob, finished third in the main with Rob in second.
The unofficial final margin between the two was eight points. Mason Beck, who began the night two points behind Bryan, ran 15th and fell back to third in the points.
“I’d like to thank everybody on my car, my family over here and everybody who helps me every week,” Bryan said. “It’s just a dream, really, to even win a race over here, let alone a championship.”
Pole-starting Schweizer, Dean Wille and Rob ran 1-2-3 through the first 11 laps, with a caution slowing the field on lap 11.
Rob moved into second on the restart, with Bryan advancing two spots and settling in fourth. Bryan advanced into third and onto the back bumper of his dad on lap 14, which gave him a solid grasp on clinching the title.
Schweizer barely held off Rob’s attempted pass for the lead on lap 18 when a two-car incident in turn one brought out a caution to set up a two-lap shootout.
The top three remained the same as the white flag waved, with Bryan bumping past his dad in turn two of the final lap. However, a spin on the other end of the track brought out one more yellow to leave a one-lap sprint to the checkers.
Schweizer held on for the win by one-car length over Rob with Bryan third.
“We’ve had enough seconds this year. It’s about time,” Schweizer said after the win.
Wille wound up fourth with William Garner charging from 14th to fifth.
McCowan Doubles Up In USRA Mods
McCowan enjoyed a double celebration, winning both the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature while also nailing down his second straight track championship.
McCowan beat Dustin Hodges, his nearest points competitor, by 1.9 seconds after taking over the lead on lap five. He held it the rest of the way in a caution-plagued, 20-lap main event.
McCowan was driving a yellow No. 7 wrap modeled after cars his grandfather, A.D. McCowan, used to own. McCowan switched to the color scheme from his familiar green and white No. 8 after midseason.
“I don’t even know what to say. This is huge,” McCowan said in victory lane. “Being here with my grandpa’s wrap on, it’s very special even though he couldn’t be here. I’m just really excited to get this done for him. It was a close battle between me and Dustin and I was glad we were able to seal the deal.”
McCowan began the night 17 points in front of Hodges in the points battle and he began the feature starting in fifth, two spots ahead of Hodges. He stayed in front of him throughout the race.
Dylan Hoover started on the pole and set the pace while McCowan worked his way into second. Tracy Wolf ran third.
McCowan got a big run on a lap-six restart to take the lead, getting around Hoover in turn two. Two laps later, Dowell moved past Hoover and into the runner-up position.
McCowan’s lead was nearly two seconds over Dowell when a lap-12 caution slowed the action. Despite two more cautions the rest of the way, McCowan was able to handle each restart and went on to capture his seventh feature win of the season to go along with the championship.
Hoover finished third with Dowell fourth and Nic Bidinger in fifth.
Jackson Makes It Seven Titles In USRA B-Mods
Ryan Gillmore beat JC Morton in one of the closest finishes of the season, earning the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature. The race had six lead changes between the duo.
The big prize, however, went to Kris Jackson whose fourth-place finish was good enough for him to claim his Lucas Oil Speedway-record seventh track championship and his fourth in a row.
He also earned championships in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
“We weren’t as good as we wanted to be tonight,” Jackson said. “We kind of played it a little safe and rode around the bottom and just made sure we finished in the top five.”
Gillmore started the night 30 points behind Jackson and did all he could, winning his third feature of the season. But it wasn’t quite enough — though his scant margin of victory over Morton (.036 seconds) gave the fans a dazzling final race of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series season.
“That was a fun race. Lapped cars really saved my life on that one,” Gillmore said. “JC was so much better than me on the bottom of (turns) one and two and I got to four to go there and I was trying to figure out an option when lapped cars showed up.
“I kind of pressured him and he was gracious. He definitely could have took it from me at any time and I appreciate him racing me me clean.”
Morton started outside of row one and wasted no time setting the early pace, with Jon Sheets second and Jackson third when the race’s first caution appeared on lap two.
Two more cautions appeared before the next two laps could be completed.
Finally, after a fourth caution on lap six, the race settled into a rhythm. Gillmore got a big run on lap seven to sail around the outside of Jackson and into second. He used the same move a lap later to steal the lead from Morton.
Morton rode the inside line to pull alongside Gillmore over the next several laps, with Andy Bryant and Jackson running third and fourth. Morton regained the lead by a half car length on lap 13, but Gillmore again rode the cushion to go back on top two laps later.
The back-and-forth tussled continued with Morton going back in front on lap 16. Those two entered lapped traffic the next time around and they were separated by a few feet taking the white flag.
Gillmore made it six lead changes in the final 100 feet, coming around the outside of turn four as Morton was hindered a bit by a lapped car. The two Springfield drivers came to the finish together.
Bryant finished third, Jackson fourth and USRA Modified national points leader Shadren Turner finished fifth.
Cox Earns Late Model Win As Ferris Clinches Title
Jefferson City’s Tucker Cox couldn’t catch Larry Ferris in the Hermitage Lumber Late Model points chase, but Cox led all 20 laps to capture the championship-night feature victory.
Cox beat Matt Becker by 1.5 seconds at the finish and was never seriously threatened throughout the event.
Ferris completed his track-championship season by finishing third.
“I felt like we’d been about a third-place car all year,” Cox said. “Finally, I didn’t overthink it for the future and it was really good.”
Cox started on the pole and roared to the lead as the feature went green. Though Ferris had mathematically clinched the title before the feature, he trailed Cox by 1.4 seconds when the race’s first caution flew on lap four.
Ferris slipped back to fifth after the restart as Cox opened a 1.2-second lead over Matt Becker. Cox’s margin ballooned to 3.4 seconds by lap 14. The runaway was erased a lap later as third-running Bryon Allison spun to bring out a caution.
Cox said he didn’t mind the caution because he was nearing lapped cars that could have potentially caused him issues.
“Right before that last yellow came out, I was like a yellow would be all right, right now,” Cox said. “I knew we were really good on restarts.”
Cox once again dominated after action resumed, rolling to a comfortable win over Becker with Ferris rallying for third, Joe Walkenhorst finishing fourth and JC Morton fifth.
Ferris said he couldn’t have asked for a better season or a better performing car from April through August.
“We’ve had a good season. We sure can’t complain about how the car has run,” Ferris said. “I think I’ve lacked a little bit, like tonight.”